Zubin Mehta was conductor and music director of both the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, and had a close association with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra that lasted many years.
Mehta was born in Bombay in 1936 to a Parsi family. His father, who had studied at the Curtis Institute in the United States, was a violinist and the first conductor of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. The young Mehta learned to play the piano and violin, and from an early age was determined to become a conductor like his father.
In the 1950s, Mehta went to Vienna and became a pupil of Hans Swarovsky at the Academy for Music. He organised orchestras from among his fellow students in order to give himself opportunities for conducting, and he also played the double bass. It was in Vienna that he met and married his first wife. He also became increasingly familiar with the works of composers such as Anton Bruckner, Gustav MAHLER, Arnold SCHOENBERG, and Richard STRAUSS.
In 1958, he entered an international competition for conducting organised by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; the prize, which he won, was a year’s assistant conductorship with the orchestra. In the same year, Mehta studied at Tanglewood, where the composer, conductor, and pianist Lukas Foss was sufficiently impressed by his talent to introduce Mehta to his own agent, Siegfried Hearst. Once signed with Hearst, Mehta obtained many important guest appearances. After a successful concert in Montreal (standing in for another conductor) the Symphony Orchestra invited him to become its musical director.
In 1961, Mehta made a guest appearance conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, then under the directorship of Georg SOLTI. Solti’s schedule required him to travel, and Mehta was engaged by the orchestra to become assistant conductor, substituting for Solti when necessary. Impressed by Mehta’s talent, the Philharmonic board promoted him to associate conductor, but without consulting Solti, who resigned a month later. Mehta, at age 26, was offered the position of musical director. He accepted, becoming the youngest person to hold such an appointment with a leading orchestra. He remained as director until 1978.
Los Angeles had long been a centre for exiled European musicians, including Mahler’s widow, Alma, Arnold Schoenberg (until his death in 1951), who had resided in Los Angeles since 1934 and had taught composition there, and Igor STRAVINSKY, who had settled in Hollywood in 1940. Because of this, Mehta felt artistically at home in Los Angeles. In 1965, Mehta made his New York Metropolitan Opera debut conducting Verdi’s Aida. Despite his success as an operatic conductor in New York, it wasn’t until 1977 that he made his London operatic debut with Otello at the Royal Opera House. But whichever genre— symphonic or operatic—Mehta conducted with rhythmic strength and flamboyance, the latter more for the benefit of the audience than for the musicians.
In 1969, Mehta became musical adviser (later musical director) of the Israel Philharmonic, which he had led in concerts for soldiers and civilians during the Six Day War. Critics praised his emotional and youthful approach to Mahler and Viennese school composers.
Mehta’s work was in direct contrast to the intellectuality of Pierre BOULEZ, who had succeeded Leonard BERNSTEIN as conductor of the New York Philharmonic. The audience for the Philharmonic had declined during Boulez’s tenure, and Mehta was offered the directorship of the orchestra in 1975.
He remained its conductor until 1991, when he left New York to live in California with his second wife. He remains active in Israel, Europe, and the U.S.
Jane Prendergast
SEE ALSO:
OPERA; ORCHESTRAL MUSIC.
Bookspan, Martin, and Ross Yockey. Zubin Mehta (London: Hale, 1980).
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9; Brahms: Symphony No. 4; Richard Strauss: Ein Helderleben; Stravinsky: Symphony No. 3; Wagner: Opera Selections.